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Patent expert Florian Mueller explained in a post to the FOSS Patents blog that the deal could be part of an effort by Google to work out a settlement with Oracle.

With the patents in hand, Google could file a countersuit against Oracle and work out a cross-licencing deal.

"In the near term, one of the most obvious ways to put them to use would be to pick some that may read on important Oracle products and propose to Oracle a cross-licence that would resolve the Android IP dispute on more favourable terms than Google could negotiate without such leverage," Mueller wrote.

"Many of the transferred patents cover fields of technology that are key to Oracle, though this doesn't automatically mean that Oracle infringes any valid ones of them."

The patent war between Oracle and Google is now entering its third month. Oracle has filed for damages of $2.6bn claiming that components in Google's Android platform have violated a number of its patents on Java technology.